The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

The Next Big Thing is a literary ‘pass the parcel’ or chain letter (though without the dire warnings...or pointlessness… so not really a chain letter at all…) There are some really interesting blogs out there and this is a great way of perusing some of ‘em through the links & discovering new writers and new books. Many of the other writers I ‘tagged’ don’t have blogs (and or I left it a bit late in the day but that is another story) but have put some of them done anyhow.

Thanks to Deidre Cartmill for ‘tagging’ me on this.
Deirdre Cartmill is a poet, writer and creative writing tutor (http://www.poetryireland.ie/education/wis-directory.php?id=324). Her debut poetry collection Midnight Solo (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Midnight-Solo-Deirdre-Cartmill/dp/190465214X) is published by Lagan Press and her second collection The Return of the Buffalo will be published in 2013. She has written for film, television and radio as Deirdre Alexander and her short film Two Little Boys (http://www.northernirelandscreen.co.uk/catalogue/235/107/two-little-boys-2012.aspx) was produced in 2012. She won the Claddagh Films Script Award and the BBC Writersroom Undercover competition and has been shortlisted for several awards including the Hennessy Literary Award, the Scottish International Poetry Competition and the Red Planet Prize. Website/blog: http://www.deirdrecartmill.com

Now for the questions which each writer answers – as you can see its geared more for novelists but I had great fun casting my poem.

1)What is the working title of your next book?  

Passage

2) Where did the idea come from for the book? 

I learned about  my namesake & great aunt Nell Regan on the day my father died – she had died of TB in the same hospice ( then a sanatorium) I heard an outline of her story that day which haunted me. When I had the chance to go to the US for an extended period last year I began work on an imagined version of it. I found I didn’t want to do a genealogical type research but rather bizarrely ended up on Ellis Island on the day of my dad’s anniversary. I also ended up encountering several other Nells along the way.

3) What genre does your book fall under?  

It is a narrative poem in sections.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition? 

Excellent question…especially for a poet…! For the skywalker a young Johnny Deppe perhaps, maybe Colin Farrell or Domhnall Gleeson for the Irish fiancé. Found it harder to choose for the female lead which is interesting – in the Hollywood version producers would demand Keira Knightly, in the Irish version Amy Huberman, but I am still searching. There would also be lots of cameos - Eleanor Metheun, Robert De Niro to name but a few.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?  

Deep breath Woman leaves Ireland in  the 20’s - abandoned by fiancé who gets his just deserts as he is locked into the safe of the Federal Gold Reserve over night - meets an Indian sky walker in New York - goes to the mid west to work -  discovers she’s very ill and returns to Ireland. Exhale

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? 

It will be a limited edition hand produced artist’s book by Jamie Murphy (See Albert Ernest & the Titanic on vimeo ) & Distillers Press/ Salvage Press.

As for an agent? Agents and poets? ( 10% of nuthin’ is …) Due out summer 2013.

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript? 

When finished it will have been just over a sporadic year in the researching & drafting but much longer in the percolating.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? 

Well, I wouldn’t compare it to these but I have been reading a range of long poems including The Rough Field, John Montague, One with Others CD Wright, Sinead Morrisey’s The State of the Prisons  to limber up and work out how the hell to sustain it. Also looking at Margaret Atwood’s The Journal of Susanna Moodie in a beautiful artist’s book edition by Charles Pachter.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See 2  

10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

You will be taken across the Atlantic, down to the bowels of the Federal Gold Reserve to the tops of skyscrapers and the banks of the Mississippi – an in verse. I myself can’t wait to see what Jamie makes of the text – there will be accordion pages and all sorts. 

Next up is Paul Perry www.paulperry.com  on the 13^th

Check out out also Jamie Murphy, Jeremy Tiang, Carmen Bugan & Josephine Rowe.